Daytona Beach Shores, FL - A chance encounter at a Daytona Beach Shores motel ends with three people behind bars for cooking methamphetamine inside one of the rooms.
42-year-old Nicole E. Jones (left), 41-year-old David E. Jones (center) and 25-year-old Zachery L. Shannon (right) are all still at Volusia County Jail today (December 27th), three days after the DBS Department of Public Safety found the meth-making operation in progress at the Shore Winds on South Atlantic Avenue.
It's not clear if the Joneses are related or married to one another, per DBSDPS, but both did list the motel as their address. Shannon is an Ormond Beach resident.
According to the arrest report, it all started around 4:15 a.m. Christmas Eve (December 24th) when a DBSDPS officer went to the motel to drop off a bicycle for a man who had just been arrested for possession of meth and drug paraphernalia.
As the officer went to locate that man's girlfriend, he heard three people "talking loudly" and "what sounded like someone shaking a bottle containing liquid and solid substance" in the room next to where she was staying, per the report.
That report also noted that the officer heard a man inside that room making drug-related statements to someone else inside, including "This time it's going to be more potent than other times because I'm doing it differently" and "Wait until you smoke this, it's going to knock your socks off".
The officer knocked on the front door after waiting for backup to arrive, spotting various items used to make meth in plain view once David Jones opened the door. Jones' eyes "got extremely wide and he screamed in panic" after he found the officer at the door, according to the report.
Nicole Jones was also found inside the room and detained. Officers pulled Shannon out of the bathroom after hearing what sounded like the porcelain top being placed on the toilet water tank, per the report.
Officers tell us all three denied they were making meth in the room when questioned, though the Joneses admitted to having cannabis in the room and Shannon also confessed to having a used syringe in one of his pockets.
Various items were found in the room afterward by the Volusia County Clandestine Laboratory Response Team, including a Gatorade bottle filled with meth oil which was hidden inside the toilet water tank, a "gas generator" made with a two-liter soda bottle and 65 grams of suspected meth inside a white bowl.
All three were charged with trafficking in meth and possession of chemicals used to make meth - both felonies - and possession of drug paraphernalia, which is a misdemeanor.
Nicole Jones was also charged with possession of cannabis - a misdemeanor - and hash oil - a felony - after officers found those items near her purse on top of the nightstand.
As of this afternoon, Shannon and David Jones are held on $20,500 bond at VCJ, while Nicole Jones is held on $23,000 bond.
VCJ records show all three have been booked numerous times in the past on a variety of charges, including 14 for David Jones since April 2007 and 13 for Shannon since June 2012. Nicole Jones has been booked at VCJ five times since October 2008.
